Newscast - Africa

The Treasury and the Bank of England say a state-backed digital pound is likely to be launched later this decade, Both institutions want to ensure the public has access to safe money that is easy to use in the digital age.
Chancellor Jeremy Hunt says the central-bank digital currency could be a new trusted and accessible way to pay however it will not be built until at least 2025.
Mr. Hunt says they want to investigate what is possible first, whilst always making sure we protect financial stability.
The Treasury and the Bank of England will formally start a consultation for the digital currency.

Google is launching an Artificial Intelligence powered chatbot called Bard to rival ChatGPT.
The firm says Bard will be used by a group of testers before being rolled out to the public in the coming weeks.
Bard is built on Google's existing large language model Lamda, which one engineer described as being so human-like in its responses that he believed it was sentient.
The tech giant also announced new AI tools for its current search engine.
Google boss Sundar Pichai says Bard seeks to combine the breadth of the world's knowledge with the power, intelligence, and creativity of our large language models," Mr Pichai stressed that he wanted Google's AI services to be "bold and responsible" but did not elaborate on how Bard would be prevented from sharing harmful or abusive content.

Social media giant Meta, which owns Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram, has failed to stop a Kenyan court from hearing a case that alleges poor working conditions at the company.
Meta wanted the case dismissed, saying that Kenyan courts have no jurisdiction because Meta is not domiciled in, nor does it trade from, Kenya, but a judge rejected the argument.
Former content moderator Daniel Motaung, who worked for local outsourcing company Sama, says he was paid about $2.20 per hour to review posts including beheadings and child abuse.
He says it will also open the door for content moderators to be protected in a court of law in the countries in which they live

Kenya’s Prime Cabinet Secretary, Musalia Mudavadi, has refuted reports that the families of former presidents Jomo Kenyatta and Daniel Moi were being targeted for tax evasion.
Mr. Mudavadi says President William Ruto had not mentioned any names in his push for tax compliance and claimed the reports were inferences made by the media.
He however insists that everyone must pay taxes to help the government run its activities.
She added that she was ready to be investigated for tax evasion and would pay up any arrears if claims of unpaid taxes can be substantiated.

A new UN report has suggested the most common factor driving people to join extremist groups in sub-Saharan Africa is not religion, but the need for work.
The report by the UN Development Programme surveyed thousands of people in eight African countries, including Mali, Nigeria, and Somalia.
Only 17% of respondents said that religion was the reason for joining radical groups, whereas 40% said poverty was their main motivation.
Education is also important, with one extra year of education significantly reducing a person's likelihood of joining an extremist group.

Justice Eneojo Eneche of the Federal Capital Territory High Court has stopped the Central Bank of Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari, and 27 commercial banks from suspending or interfering with the currency redesign terminal date of February 10 or issuing any directive contrary to the said date.
The court also granted an order directing the Chief Executive Officers of the banks, to show cause why they should not be arrested and prosecuted for the financial sabotage of the country, by illegally hoarding and not disbursing the new N200, N500, and N1000 bank notes, despite the supply of such notes by the central bank.
The CBN maintained it would not extend the deadline.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arrested a bank’s operations manager in Abuja for hoarding N29m worth of new naira notes.
Nigeria’s apex bank, the Central Bank of Nigeria fixed February 10 as the deadline for swapping the old naira notes with the new ones. But there is a scarcity of banknotes, a development that led to the intervention of security agencies.
The EFCC, which is one of the agencies, said it arrested the unnamed bank staff in one of its operations.

Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court Abuja ordered the Peoples Democratic Party not to take any action aimed at suspending or expelling Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike from the party.
The order was made upon an ex parte motion filed by Wike against the entire hierarchy of the PDP.
Wike also asked for an order of the Court granting him leave to serve the motion on notice, originating motion, and all other processes of the Court in the suit on the 1st to 5th Respondents by substituted means which is pasting all the said processes of Court on the PDP National Secretariat.
The Rivers state Governor equally sought an order deeming such service as made above as proper service.

A California utility giant must face trial for manslaughter for its role in a 2020 wildfire that killed four people.
It is the latest legal trouble for Pacific Gas & Electric, which has been blamed for a series of deadly wildfires in the state in recent years.
A judge found prosecutors had presented enough evidence during a preliminary hearing for the company to stand trial.
An investigation revealed it began when a pine tree fell on power lines belonging to PG&E. The utility giant says that it recognized its equipment had caused the fire but denied criminal wrongdoing.

Tesla co-founder Elon Musk has been cleared of wrongdoing for a tweet in which he says he had funding secured to take the electric carmaker back into private ownership.
Shareholders argued he misled them with his posts in August 2018, and they had lost billions of dollars because of them.
The proposed $72bn buyout never materialized and If found liable, Musk could have been ordered to pay out billions in damages.
Mr. Musk - who had wanted the trial moved to Texas, where Tesla is based, arguing he could not get a fair trial in San Francisco - welcomed the outcome.